Vengence
by Courtney Lott
Summary: Paul has joined up with Dr. Miller in order to eliminate those who oppose him. With Dakota dead does the fight for good have ANY hope?Make sure you read Unreal and Revealed before you read this.Thanks for all the reviews!
1. New Level

Okay, so when I first put this story up I didn't specify that this is the Third in the Trilogy (Just for those of you who don't know). The first is Unreal, the second is Revealed, and this, Vengeance, is the third. So if you've just jumped on and are super confused, read the other two stories first. _And_, please review. I want to know what you liked, what you didn't like, and why. Also, if anything confused you tell me. Thanks so much!

-Courtney

Charlie's eyes popped open. He had fallen asleep! Why had he fallen asleep? He was supposed to be listening to Paul's movements, but he had fallen

asleep! Now, he heard a hissing noise, and he knew exactly what it was. Paul had learned from Dakota's attack and now pumped sleeping gas into the

apartments. Did he ever quit? Did he not ever sleep? It had only been two days since Dakota had died, why could he not wait?

Charlie rose from his bed. He felt very light headed and dizzy, the gas had obviously gotten relatively far. Charlie searched around in the darkness for a

tissue and put it over his mouth.

He then, shook Jack by the shoulders. "Come on Jack, wake up!"

"What? What is it?" He asked groggily.

"You've got to help Jack," Charlie said handing him a tissue. He explained what Paul had done. Quickly they formed a plan. Charlie could hear that

Bethanie, Kristopher, and Riley had already been caught but he knew how to save the others. He and Jack quietly snuck down to the main building. Once

inside Jack turned his lighter on underneath a sprinkler that hung from the ceiling. Water rained down on them to put out a non-existent fire, but to save their

lives nonetheless. Then, the two boys ran up to Joshes room for it was the closest.

Josh lay in bed but Pearl's was empty. Where was she?

"Josh, Josh." Jack shook the boy but he did not move. They could hear voices out side and the heavy fall of boots. "Dang-it, why does this kid have to be

such a hard sleeper?" Jack muttered. He shook him some more. The voices grew closer.

"Stay here, and protect Josh," Charlie commanded. "If you have to, hide, but do not follow me." He ran out of the room coughing, acting like he had no

idea what had happened. As he stumbled down the stairs he felt iron hands clamp down on his arms.

"Who is it?" One of the voices asked.

"Charlie," Paul's voice replied. "He's coming with us."

And then, they dragged him away. Not that it mattered; they were walking away from Jack and Josh. At least someone had been saved.


	2. Captured

If anyone gets confused I say again read Sharlie's stories they are excellent and will explain the confusion away! Please read and review!

David rubbed his eyes and stared at the group. Only a few remained and all of them looked exhausted. When the water had come pouring down into their faces, they woke up from the gas. Thinking a fire had stared most had run from their rooms. Paul and his men, now realizing that they did not want to contend with all of them when they were awake, decided to take who they had and go.

Darron and David posted Sephrim and Jagger as guards and made everyone stay in the meeting room. So few were left that almost everyone could fit on the two couch beds. They waited until morning to have a meeting, seeing how exhausted everyone looked.

David sat in one of the big armchairs gazing over the sleeping remnant. Jack and Charlie had saved Josh, but Charlie had been captured, Xander had been in the shower so he had not been put to sleep and for some reason had gone untouched. David figured Paul and Karma knew better than to tangle with him since he had Paul's powers.

However, Nicole, Paul's daughter and Xander's girlfriend had been captured. Candice and Darron had escaped, and so had Julia. But Pearl, Alex, Bethanie, Kristopher, Riley, Kimber, and Sterling's sister Tiffany had not escaped. No one knew where they had been taken; the only thing they were sure of was that Paul had a hand in it.

How could they have been taken so off guard? How come Charlie had reacted so slowly? Had he not been listening? Jack had made excuses for his brother saying that Paul must have suspected that Charlie would be listening and taken care of him before they made any moves, but that did not explain why he woke up at all. David figured it best to just say, that like Dakota, Charlie was human, no matter how much power he had. We have got to stop putting our trust in humans, David thought. And start putting our trust in God.


	3. Wide Open Spaces

Alex tried to open his eyes but succeeded with only one. He could barely see for the room no lights save for the crack under the door. However, he knew that bars surrounded him. A cage. A very small cage. Only long enough for his legs to stretch out and only tall enough for him to sit up straight. Alex breathed in deep. Wide open spaces, wide-open spaces, he thought. Man, I hate small places, man, I hate small places.

He rolled his head to the side and a moan escaped his lips. His neck burned, but then again so did his head, and arms and legs, and back, and other places he did not even know he could hurt in. He raised a hand up to wipe the blood from his mouth, but it could not reach the distance. Alex looked down to see thick handcuffs around his wrists attached to the bars of the cell. Chains surrounded his ankles as well.

"Wide open spaces," Alex mumbled again. He flinched at the annoying dripping sound that echoed off in a corner somewhere. "Somebody get me out of here," he begged the darkness.

Light spilled across the floor as the large metal door edged open. Red fingernails slid around the edge of the door. Alex knew those fingers, they belonged to Karma. He groaned as Karma shut the door behind her. The bulb beside the door blinked on with a click. A luminous smile stretched across her face and she walked towards the cage like a model.

"Hello Alex. Glad to see me?" She asked.

"Where am I?" His voice seemed quiet as it tried to make it through his swollen lips.

Karma bent down next to the cage and slid her hands through the bars onto his leg. "The basement of The Mercury room," she said and ran a finger down his cheek. The open skin burned at the touch of her flesh and Alex shuddered.

"What am I doing here?" He croaked. "I mean, what happened?"

Karma laughed. It floated out like water over pebbles in a stream. She glided her finger under his chin, but he still did not look at her. He could not have if he had wanted to, his neck hurt too much. "You've heard of Dr. Miller, haven't you?"

Alex nodded slightly. "Yeah, seen him on TV."

"Would you like to guess what Paul did?" Karma asked. She continued to glide a long nail under his chin and along his neck.

Alex tried to push her hand away but his hand would not reach so he moved his head to the side.

"Aw, Alex," Karma whined. "Don't be that way. Don't you want to guess?"

Alex continued to stare straight ahead.

"Well, you're no fun," she complained.

"Paul's sold us all out to him," Alex said. "For experiments." He looked at her for the first time. The slight movement sent sharp waves of pain through his neck. "He'll do anything to win, won't he Karma?"

"Oooo, aren't you the smart one?" She smiled her perfect smile.

"But he didn't get everyone did he." Alex said.

Karmas smiled faded and she stood, turning from him for a moment. "No, he didn't." She turned back around and sunk down next to him again. "But he will. He's got power over your friends now. Soon, he'll have them all in the lab, under a microscope."

Alex looked away again and shivered in the darkness. "Then, why am I here and not in the lab?"

Karma smiled again and took hold of his chin to shake it. "Now we're getting to the good questions." She said. "Why do you think you are here?"

Alex thought for a moment. The last year slipped by him through his mind. "Well, let's go down the list of things I did to tick y'all off personally. First and foremost, I helped Dakota escape, I turned you down, and my sarcastic comments have driven you to the point of insanity." He looked at her again. "Did I miss anything?"

"No, that about summed it up." Karma stood and opened the cell door with a key that hung around her neck. She shut the door behind her and strattled Alex's legs. Her long fingernails pushed away a brown strand of hair that had fallen on his forehead.   
Alex could not read her expression. He had never seen it before on her face. He tried to read her mind but for some reason could not. "Why can't I use my powers?" Alex asked.

Karma touched his temple, but her fingers did not touch the skin. A tiny circular disk had been attached there. "This disk controls your powers. Paul can turn them on and off whenever he wants too. If he wishes, you can be as helpless as a vermin."

A wave of heat passed over Alex's body and he suddenly had a hard time breathing. The walls of the cage pressed in closer. I can't get out, he thought. I can't get out. "Can't get out," he said aloud.

"What?" Karma asked.

"Why...why are you doing this? Why..."Darkness fell on him.


	4. Sorry Charlie

Charlie woke up to the feeling of a strong hand on his chin. He opened his eyes but of course saw nothing. Cold, metal bars dug into his back and thick iron chains cut into his wrists and ankles. His body ached and he remembered the previous night. He struggled and the men had beaten him, beaten him until he passed out. Why, he did not know. He could not have escaped. Maybe they did it out of spite. But something else seemed strange to him, everything sounded extremely dull and quiet. Normally, he had to cover his ears to little sounds, now he struggled to hear the voice of the hand that held his jaw.

"Charlie, Charlie, Charlie," it said. "Why couldn't you have been a good little boy and minded your own business?"

Charlie knew now that the voice belonged to Paul. But why did it sound so dull, and quiet? Like he stood behind a glass wall trying to talk to him.

"What's going on?" Charlie groaned. "I-I can't hear. Why can't I hear?"

Paul laughed and let go of his chin after a hard shake. He did not answer; instead, he simply stood and laughed some more.

Charlie felt utterly cut off and trapped. Now not only could he not see, but also he could hardly hear. What had Paul done to him? Finally, after a few moments of agonizing silence. Paul spoke, "You don't enjoy loosing your power, do you Charlie? It cripples you even more than you were before, you pathetic waist of air." He grabbed Charlie by the neck. His big fingers dug into it, and Charlie could not breathe. "This is what you get for spying on me. A little disk has been installed to keep your powers under control-my control. There will be no more spying."


	5. Moving Day

"They've had enough, Karma," Paul said. "Its time to send them to the lab. Tell Dr. Miller to be ready."


	6. Strange Hope

Pearl sat staring through the glass room at one of the doctors. For five minutes she had been staring at the same doctor. She had almost every feature of his face memorized. The smooth skin that told of his youth, the deep but tired green eyes, the thin lips that spoke of how stressful his job had become, and the serious lack of tan which told that he desperately needed a vacation.

The two had been sitting there for so long that the doctor had stopped taking notes and he had all but forgotten his original purpose. Now, his eyes remained locked on this creature. Beautiful did not describe her, but something caught one's eye when they took a good look at her. Even in the black t-shirt and cloth shorts she seemed exotic, untamed, but in a mesmerizing way. Like a wild cat, trapped in a cage. And because of the side effects of the disk her brown eyes glowed yellow. This made her look all the more untamed and exotic.

The doctor stepped up to the glass. Pearl did not change positions, only her eyes moved. She now saw his nametag. The black letters spelled out the name Dr. Bryan Miller. Dr. Miller's son, Pearl thought. For some reason, Pearl did not find this doctor incredibly annoying as the rest. He did not stare at her as if she were and alien species, but more like she had some answer to life that he could not figure out. Nonetheless, she kept her stare cold. But then the doctor smiled. Pearl could not figure out why, but he did it anyway.

Bryan Miller watched as her icy stare melted, and a look of awe dripped onto her face. The sound of the double doors of the lab opened and the last person Pearl wanted to see while behind glass came strolling in. He looked so happy and pleased with himself that Pearl would not have been surprised if he had skipped in.

"Mr. Rúnder," Bryan said extending a hand.

Paul looked at it with disgust but shook it anyway. Even though he had joined with Dr. Miller he still had as much contempt for humans as he had before. "How is your study going?" Paul asked.

"She's... well, I don't know how to describe her. I-"

"Uh, hi, I'm not deaf. Please don't talk about me like I'm not here," Pearl said, cutting the doctor off.

"Pay her no mind," Paul said. "She has a bit of a temper."

But Bryan walked a little closer to the glass. Pearl had been right in her assumption. He saw her as a human being. She just had extraordinary powers. "I'm sorry," he said. "You're amazing. What's your name?"

"Its Pearl Stevens," Paul said, trying to draw his attention away from her glowing eyes.

"Hey Paul!"

Paul's eyes rolled to Pearl. She cocked her head to the side, flipped her middle finger up and smiled. Bryan tried to stifle a laugh. Paul raised his hand from his pocket. He held a little control with many little buttons. Two flashed on and off. One red and the other green. His finger jammed the green button in. Shock waves coursed through her body and Pearl let out a yell. She fell onto her back holding her head.

Bryan flinched. "Mr. Rúnder, is that really necessary?" He asked. "She is human after all."

Paul took his finger off the button. "Doctor, once you learn that these creatures are a rebellious group with inhuman plans to take over mankind you'll have absolutely no qualms about using this." He said placing it in the doctors' hand.

So that's how he's got them, Pearl thought as the pain wore away. He told them that we're the ones who want to take over. Ooo that creep! If only I had my power I would-

Shock waves flooded her body again. Paul had read her thoughts. She felt naked without her power; she could not keep him out of her mind.

"Take her in with the others," Paul said. "And be careful, even with out her powers she is dangerous." He left the room.

"Darn right I'm dangerous," Pearl mumbled. "You just wait 'till I get my powers back you coward. You'll wish you'd never done the crap you've done to my family."

Bryan opened the glass door and walked to her. But he did not look scared like she thought he would, and he did not use the handcuffs Paul had handed him, nor did he use the remote. He simply held out a hand to help her up. Pearl felt very confused. At one turn Paul had body slammed her, at another, this young doctor presented hope. She would just have to be smart in the way she played her cards.


	7. Heartless

Alex stumbled into his glass room, his small glass room. He could only take about five steps from one end to the other in any direction. Immediately, he collapsed onto the bed that stuck out of the wall like a cot. His entire body hurt. In the room to his left one of the doctors laid Charlie on a bed almost identical to Alex's.

Man, Charlie must be worse off than I am, Alex thought. The boy looked as if he had been shoved through a blender. Blood stained his white t-shirt and plaid pajama pants. Alex felt his jaws tense. How could anyone be heartless enough to beat up on a blind kid? He wondered. Alex painfully turned his head to the right. No one sat in the next room, in fact, none of the other rooms looked occupied. He tried to reach out with his mind but then remembered that he no longer had that ability.

His eyes wondered around the giant lab. Long black topped counters raised just slightly above the level of the glass rooms stretched across the room in front of the doors. High tech computers with red and green blinking lights, and other various pieces of technological equipment covered the counters. In front of the center counter more machines that Alex did not recognize sat planted in the ground. All around the walls were charts of the inside of the ear, the eye, the mouth, anything and everything pertaining to the human body.

The double doors sprung open and six doctors came in with his six friends. Most of them held their "specimens" arms dragging them like convicts to their cells. All accept one doctor, Pearl's doctor, amazing, as it seemed. The two actually walked side by side. Alex liked him immediately. Maybe there is hope, he thought.

The doctors herded them into their individual rooms. Pearl walked through the glass walls into her room and eased down into her bed. Her brown eyes stared as if locked on the doctor's face as he hesitated at the open glass door. For a moment, it looked as if he would let her free, but another doctor came up behind him and pushed the door shut. Then, he put a hand on the young doctors shoulder and guided him away from the glass cage. Pearl continued to stare after the two, and when it did not seem that she would ever look any place else Alex tapped on the glass quietly.

Slowly Pearl's head turned in his direction and her eyes went from excited to sorrow. She glanced in the direction of the doctors and then crawled over to the glass wall.  
"Alex, you're here too? Are you okay? Is that Charlie over there? What happened to you? What-"

"Stop," Alex said through clenched teeth. His jaw still ached.

Pearl pursed her lips together and waited for him to answer her questions.

"I think that Charlie and I messed with Paul and Karma a little too much and so they decided to deal with us personally before delivering us here. I'm not too bad off but I'm not sure about Charlie." Alex said throwing a glance over at the other room. "He hasn't moved since they threw him in there, and we are having a serious lack of power here, so I can't talk with him telepathically, and chances are that he can no longer here as well as before so..."

They sat in silence for a moment as the weight of their predicament swept over them.


End file.
